The secrets of songcraft

From lifting your mood to blurring the limits of fatigue, music doesn’t just soundtrack your workouts – it changes the way you move. Here's how rhythm, tempo and melody might be shaping your performance in ways you don’t even realise

Improvisation. For many pianists, the very word can feel intimidating. We see a jazz player fly across the keys and assume they are simply making it up. But improvisation is not a random act. It is ro

Music cannot work a magic spell. It can, however, do wonderful things. In recent issues of BBC Music Magazine, we have explored the benefits to mental health of listening and playing music, not least

Everything We Do Is Music – How 20th-Century Classical Music Shaped Pop Elizabeth Alker Faber 304pp (hb) £20 The concept behind Elizabeth’s Alker’s book is spelled out in the subtitle: ‘How 20th-Centu

The accessibility, affordability and portability of synthesizers in the late 70s had a profound effect on popular music, particularly in the UK, where the likes of Ultravox!, Gary Numan and OMD reshap

Is there a special sorcery in Seoul? Cunning creativity in Canada? Preternatural pizzazz in Paris? Oh, why do so many great pianists come from this or that country? We even have some in Britain; is th